This Plasma Cutter combines power and reliability in a portable package.

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The 211-V Plasma Cutter, also referred to as the "Plasma Cutter" or simply "the Cutter", is a hand-portable mineral cutter manufactured by Schofield Tools. The Plasma Cutter is one of the miner's primary tools of the trade, offering unrivaled reliability in even the most hostile of work environments. In the main entries of the Dead Space series, it is often the initial "reappropriated tool" used by protagonist Isaac Clarke.

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The Plasma Cutter delivers a cohesive pulse-stream, or "bolt", of ionized plasma when fired. It is capable of firing bolts vertically (primary firing mode) and horizontally (secondary firing mode). The Plasma Cutter is very accurate, utilizing three blue lasers to indicate the desired cutting plane.

On impact with the target, bolt cohesion fails frontward first, penetrating the target with a focused jet of superheated matter. This causes intense localized shear effects as well as a tunneling thermal expansion. When used upon brittle, frozen rocks riddled with faults, it can split them open in one or two shots in skilled hands. Against pliable targets, however, impact will cause minimal damage and thermal expansion will not so much cut as stress the area around the impact site, sometimes requiring several consecutive hits with the non-upgraded tool. Still, when presented with a less than effective alternative against dense organic matter, the 211-V Plasma Cutter retains its utility.

The Plasma Cutter utilizes variable-capacity cartridges called Plasma Energy as its ammunition which is capable of cutting down hard, mineral laden rocks in mining operations. Though seeming to only contain stored energy in them, plasma is in fact highly ionized matter, so either the cartridge is a combination battery/plasma medium, or the Cutter itself contains a reservoir of usable material to carry the ion charge.

Plasma Energy for the Plasma Cutter can be purchased in the Store for 1,200 Credits for six rounds.

The Plasma Cutter is the player's initial weapon for the early parts of the games, and should be considered as a trusty backup slicer. A good strategy is to keep at least 1-2 inventory slots filled with Plasma Energy (one slot can hold 25 rounds) for situations where the player may run out of ammo for their other weapons. Keep the Plasma Cutter fully-loaded and ready at all times.

Using Stasis on Necromorphs makes it easier to quickly sever their limbs with the Plasma Cutter. Once slowed to a crawl, dismember their arms to save ammo.

Fired Plasma Energy travels almost instantly towards its target, making the Plasma Cutter useful for engaging far-off/fast-moving enemies such as Slashers, Exploders, and Twitchers. However, the cutter's ammo delivers virtually no splash damage, making it ineffective against a payload of Swarmers.

Being one of the most precise weapons in the series, the Plasma Cutter requires the handler to be steady and in control when aiming it. Remain calm and line up your shots.

It's very useful against a Drag Tentacle. Should one grab, change to this quickly.

In Dead Space (mobile) it only requires 14 Power Nodes to fully upgrade, leaving a few of the blank spots open, making it one of the best weapons in the game. Its two firing modes, high capacity, quick firing speed, and quick reloading speed make it a great weapon (whether used with or without Stasis) to dismember almost any Necromorph

In Dead Space 3, A Plasma Cutter with the Compact Conic Dispersal part can dismember both a Slasher's legs in one shot if it's standing or walking, due to them hold their legs close together. In earlier games, this was not possible because enemies kept their legs spread. Because of this, it's possible to kill a Slasher in one shot with a Plasma Cutter with max Damage investment if the player aims at their thighs, saving precious ammo.

Finishing the first Dead Space and using only the Plasma Cutter will earn the "One Gun" Trophy/Achievement. Those attempting to earn the achievement should use Stasis extensively in crowded situations as the Plasma Cutter is not a suitable weapon for crowd control, even when fully upgraded. The same achievement can also be attained by using only the Plasma Cutter (in addition to the Plasma Saw) in Dead Space (mobile).

Aside from the Ripper, the Plasma Cutter is the only Dead Space 2 weapon to not have a unique damage boost confered by any suit, barring the Elite Advanced Suit which provides a 10% DMG bonus to ALL weapons. So far, like the Ripper, there has been no suit which offers damage bonus to the Plasma Cutter alone.

In Dead Space, the Plasma Cutter would always revert to vertical mode during its reload animation, then rotates back to the currently set position once the animation is finished. The Cutter in later games does not do this.

In the first Dead Space, the crosshairs that the Plasma Cutter used would get larger or smaller when they came in contact with walls, the environment, and Necromorphs, probably to make the game more realistic and challenging. The crosshairs in Dead Space 2 are static to the center of the screen, though this can be changed in the options menu by switching the crosshairs from "Static", to "Classic".

In Dead Space 2, it gains the ability to light enemies on fire once the "Special" upgrade slot has been filled. This effect seems to be far less noticeable when dismembering compared to shots to torsos/body.

The Forged Plasma Cutter from the Dead Space 2 DLC is extremely useful on higher difficulty settings, as it's 10% higher damage (which comes out to 19.8 damage/shot on a fully upgraded model) allows Isaac to more easily dismember Necromorphs while using less ammo.

In the PC and PS3 versions of Dead Space 2, the Plasma Cutter always resets to vertical mode when you die and go back to your checkpoint.

The Plasma Cutter is one of the five secondary weapons in Dead Space 2's multiplayer. It serves as the default weapon.

In Dead Space 3, the Plasma Cutter can be created using any Compact Frame, a Plasma Core upper tool and a Rotator Cuff module.

The Plasma Cutter appears in Dead Space: Martyr, though it is implied to be much bigger than the Plasma Cutter in the games, as it takes two hands to operate and it weighs Altman down considerably when swimming, although this may be because it was an older version of the Plasma Cutter. Also it appears to have some sort of blade on it, like the Plasma Saw does.

The Collector's Edition of Dead Space 2 comes with a comically small version of the Plasma Cutter with three LED lights to represent its trademark crosshair.

In the show The Big Bang Theory, a model Plasma cutter can be seen on a shelf in Howard's room in his mothers house.

Isaac is shown wielding the Plasma Cutter in most of the promotional material for Dead Space, Dead Space 2, and Dead Space 3.

With the damage upgrades maxed, the Plasma Cutter becomes a legitimate arc welder, although not for traditional electricity, but plasma instead. If one looks to the left or right immediately after shooting they can see the trail from the gun all the way to the intended target is an arc of ionized energy. This is opposed to the Plasma Cutters default damage output, which is simply a bolt.

Similar to the Ripper, the size of the Plasma Cutter shrinks in each subsequent game entry. It is visually large in the original Dead Space, then it gets somewhat smaller in Dead Space 2, having its bulky spacers (mostly) removed. By the time of Dead Space 3 the Cutter is only about as big as a small handgun, the spacers have been re-added but their overall size have been toned down significantly.

The "blades" on the Plasma Cutter possibly function like spacers for the tools intended purpose, cutting minerals. This implies that the Plasma Cutter is probably used/handled like a nail gun, as in the cutter is intended to be placed/aimed directly on the material to be cut, and firing one plasma bolt into said surface. The cutters vertical and horizontal modes would allow the user to cut minerals without having to turn the entire tool 90 degrees.

The old Plasma Cutter from the original Dead Space makes a return in Dead Space 2 going by the name of the "Refurbished Plasma Cutter" with the cost of 0 credits if Dead Space has been installed on the PC, or a completed Dead Space Save file exists in the PS3 or Xbox 360 hard drive. You can acquire it from the first Store you pass in game. Ellie Langford also wields the Plasma Cutter from the first game as a weapon.

The Refurbished Cutter is also the default secondary weapon in Dead Space 2's multiplayer mode.

A full-sized replica of the 211-V Plasma Cutter exists, it weighs 2.5 pounds and comes with its own carry case (it costs around $229.95), however its manufacturer is labeled as Timson Tools, instead of Shofield Tools, going so far as to say that Isaac Clarke uses the Timson Tools Plasma Cutter in Dead Space and Dead Space 2. Also, this Plasma Cutter features green laser reticules instead of the usual blue.

The Plasma Cutter acquired by the player in Dead Space 2 is not an official tool, but jury-rigged by Isaac on the fly by combining a medical stationary tissue laser and his previously acquired flashlight. This custom-built Plasma Cutter shares the same upgrade path as the "Refurbished Plasma Cutter"; upgrading one of the Plasma Cutter will affect the other.

An older version of the Plasma Cutter required powering down before it could be switched to horizontal or vertical mode.[citation needed]

Plasma torch is a real-life Plasma Cutter. It is an electric cutting torch designed to cut metal. Depending on the torch, it needs to be plugged in to an AC or DC outlet (DC being the most common and most used), a stable work area, a minimum of two electrodes (DC version), and an air hose. They generate a lot of heat, and while cutting metal, they must be moved at a certain speed (moving the torch too fast results in the torch barely cutting the metal, moving too slow results in the torch cutting and welding the metal back together simultaneously).

The Plasma cutter has received a slight visual redesign in Dead Space 3, appearing similar in design to Isaac's makeshift Plasma Cutter in Dead Space 2. The frame is noticeably smaller, and the bottom stablizer has been removed, being replaced by the tool's Rotator Cuff. It's color scheme has also been flipped, with orange parts now gray and vice-versa. Its default mode has also been changed from vertical to horizontal, and is permenantly fixed into the latter mode if a Rotator Cuff has not been built into the tool. The firing sound has also been changed, sounding much weaker than its previous model. It is unknown if this is a retroactively-redesigned version of the 211-V model or a new model of the Plasma Cutter.

The Plasma Cutter can be recreated by putting a Plasma Core with any tip as an Upper Tool on a Compact Frame, with a Rotator Cuff Module as the Lower Tool, and adding a Flame Glaze attachment. Notably, the module looks different on this weapon in comparison to the other tools that it can attach to.